Recipe: Strawberries shine, raspberries add color to versatile sauce
This is, as they say, a serving suggestion: Strawberry-raspberry compote dresses up cheese blintzes, but could just as easily work on pound cake, ice cream or pancakes. Kathy Morrison
The perfect strawberry is merely washed and eaten over the sink.
It's spring and it's strawberry time, so I hope you all do that at least once this season.
But there are many strawberries that are not quite at that level of perfection, but which can lend their lovely flavor to many spring treats.
This easy recipe is for them.
It's barely a recipe at all, but one worth memorizing for all the fresh-fruit months ahead of us. The list of uses likely is longer than the list of ingredients: Spoon it over ice cream or pound cake or blintzes, stir it into yogurt or whipped cream, pile it onto pancakes or waffles ... you get the idea. It's not too sweet, and there's just a hint of flavoring that lets the strawberries shine.
Beyond deciding whether to go all strawberries or include other berries -- I added a handful of raspberries for color -- the only decision required is how much cornstarch to use. I like a loose, syruplike compote, so stirred in just 1 teaspoon of cornstarch. Up to 3 teaspoons of cornstarch is possible, which will make the compote more like strawberry tart filling (ooo, another use!).
Easy berry compote
Makes 4 cups
Ingredients:
4 cups prepared berries, mostly strawberries plus (if desired) raspberries, blueberries and/or blackberries
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 to 3 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 to 1 teaspoon fruity liqueur such as Cointreau or kirsch (optional)
Instructions:
About 1 pound's worth of strawberries will yield 4 cups. They should be washed, hulled and halved or quartered before measuring. Wash and add any other berries desired.
Place the prepared berries and the granulated sugar in a medium saucepan.
In a small bowl or measuring cup, stir together the lemon juice, cornstarch and flavoring(s) until the cornstarch is dissolved. Pour the mixture over the strawberries in the pan and stir gently to combine.
Bring the berries to a quick boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the temperature and simmer until the sauce reaches desired thickness, at least 5 minutes and up to 15 minutes.
Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly before using. Or allow to cool to room temperature and use then, or refrigerate in a closed container until ready to serve. The sauce may thicken more as it cools. Gentle warming, on stove or in microwave, will thin it again.
Note: This compote also can be frozen.
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Garden Checklist for week of Jan. 12
Once the winds die down, it’s good winter gardening weather with plenty to do:
* Prune, prune, prune. Now is the time to cut back most deciduous trees and shrubs. The exceptions are spring-flowering shrubs such as lilacs.
* Now is the time to prune fruit trees. (The exceptions are apricot and cherry trees, which are susceptible to a fungus that causes dieback. Save them until summer.) Clean up leaves and debris around the trees to prevent the spread of disease.
* Prune roses, even if they’re still trying to bloom. Strip off any remaining leaves, so the bush will be able to put out new growth in early spring.
* Clean up leaves and debris around your newly pruned roses and shrubs. Put down fresh mulch or bark to keep roots cozy.
* After the wind stops, apply horticultural oil to fruit trees to control scale, mites and aphids. Oils need 24 hours of dry weather after application to be effective.
* This is also the time to spray a copper-based fungicide to peach and nectarine trees to fight leaf curl. (The safest effective fungicides available for backyard trees are copper soap -- aka copper octanoate -- or copper ammonium, a fixed copper fungicide. Apply either of these copper products with 1% horticultural oil to increase effectiveness.)
* When forced bulbs sprout, move them to a cool, bright window. Give them a quarter turn each day so the stems will grow straight.
* Browse through seed catalogs and start making plans for spring and summer.
* Divide daylilies, Shasta daisies and other perennials.
* Cut back and divide chrysanthemums.
* Plant bare-root roses, trees and shrubs.
* Transplant pansies, violas, calendulas, English daisies, snapdragons and fairy primroses.
* In the vegetable garden, plant fava beans, head lettuce, mustard, onion sets, radicchio and radishes.
* Plant bare-root asparagus and root divisions of rhubarb.
* In the bulb department, plant callas, anemones, ranunculus and gladioli for bloom from late spring into summer.
* Plant blooming azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons. If you’re shopping for these beautiful landscape plants, you can now find them in full flower at local nurseries.
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